FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT YULIA TYMOSHENKO - PAGE 3

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich said on Friday he had not ordered police to shoot at protesters before he was forced out of power and the responsibility for bloodshed in Kiev lay with the demonstrators. At a news conference in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, Yanukovich also said he was surprised that Russian president Vladimir Putin had said nothing in public about the past week's events in Ukraine. He said he had not seen Putin but had spoken to him by telephone during that time.

KIEV (Reuters) - Two valuable paintings in the offices of the Ukrainian government have been mysteriously swapped for replicas, the former Soviet republic's Culture Ministry said on Wednesday. The landscape paintings by 20th century Ukrainian artist Mykola Hlushchenko have been on display in the government building since August 2001. "Chemical tests have shown that both paintings are replicas of Hlushchenko's works," the ministry said in a statement. Insurers have valued the paintings at about $144,000 combined.

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko urged President Viktor Yanukovich's opponents on Saturday not to abandon their protests in central Kiev even though parliament has voted to oust him. In an emotional speech to thousands of protesters in Kiev's Independence Square after she was carried on to a stage in a wheelchair, she said: "You have no right to leave the Maidan (square)... Don't stop yet. " Tymoshenko, a former prime minister, was released earlier on Saturday from the hospital where she had been held under prison guard for much of the time since she was convicted in 2011 on charges of abuse of office.

WARSAW (Reuters) - The leader of Poland's main opposition party called on Saturday for the final of Euro 2012 to be moved from Kiev to Warsaw in protest against the Ukrainian authorities' alleged mistreatment of jailed ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Poland and Ukraine are co-hosts of the month-long soccer tournament whose opening games will be played on June 8. The final will be played in Kiev on July 1. "At the very least, UEFA should transfer the final match of Euro 2012 from Kiev to Warsaw.

(Refiles to fix headline) BRUSSELS, April 30 (Reuters) - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will not visit Ukraine because of the treatment of imprisoned former prime ministers Yulia Tymoshenko, adding to the number of European leaders boycotting the country, his spokeswoman said on Monday. Ukraine is hosting a summit of central European presidents in the Black Sea resort of Yalta on May 11-12, and the Euro 2012 soccer tournament, which it is co-hosting with Poland, in June.

KHARKIV, Ukraine, May 8 (Reuters) - Ukraine's imprisoned opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko has refused to be moved from prison to hospital on Tuesday, but left open the possibility of a move there on Wednesday, the state prison service said. Tymoshenko had explained her position by saying she needed more time to discuss her situation with her lawyers, a prison service statement said. The plight of Tymoshenko, a former prime minister who says she is being unjustly persecuted by her rival, President Viktor Yanukovich, has embittered the former Soviet republic's relations with the West and dented its international image.

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine on Thursday denounced what it said were attempts to politicize the European soccer championships next month as "destructive" and said the failure of the tournament would be a loss for millions of people. Several European politicians have said they intend to stay away from the former Soviet republic in protest at the treatment accorded to imprisoned opposition leader and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko by the Kiev authorities. "The foreign ministry considers attempts to politicize sporting events to be destructive," the ministry said in a statement.

KIEV, July 1 (Reuters) - Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, a target of European Union sanctions over human rights, shared a VIP box with European leaders at the Euro 2012 final on Sunday. Pictures published by private Ukrainian news agency UNIAN showed Lukashenko and his son Nikolai, aged 7, sitting next to Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili and other ex-Soviet leaders at the Olympic stadium in Kiev. Brussels has introduced travel bans and asset freezes against Lukashenko and a number of his officials after his government cracked down on opposition last year in the aftermath of his re-election as president.

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's parliamentary election on Sunday was marred by the ruling Party of the Regions using state resources and facilities for campaigning and by a lack of transparency over how parties were financed, an international monitoring team said on Monday. The election, in which President Viktor Yanukovich's Regions seems likely to have secured a majority, was also characterized by media coverage weighted in favor of the ruling party, a mission of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said.